In the last month, Erik ten Hag has given the illusion Jadon Sancho has a future at Manchester United and Anthony Martial is in line for a new contract.
Those who take Ten Hag's quotes at face value ran stories that Sancho had a route back into the first-team squad. To anyone who attends or watches press conferences at Carrington regularly, the door has not just been shut on Sancho but he is getting changed with the door locked in a separate building to his teammates.
On Thursday, Sky Sports News dedicated a segment to Martial, scorer of 18 United goals in the last three-and-a-half years and who last completed 90 minutes in the Premier League in January 2021, potentially signing a renewal.
The analysis was clipped and tweeted. Then it was deleted once United clarified Martial would almost certainly not be at the club next season.
READ MORE: United stance on Varane and Martial futures
READ MORE: Ratcliffe pictured meeting Ten Hag
At least seven reporters from Sky have attended press conferences at Carrington this season. The departure of James Cooper, a time-served authority on United who travelled to countless continents and countries covering the club and narrated the season review DVD in 2002-03, was as unwise as it was inexplicable.
But Ten Hag is muddying the waters. "We are talking with Rapha Varane, with Anthony Martial," he said yesterday. Ten Hag favours stock phrases and "talking with" cropped up with the three players whose contracts were extended.
A "talking with" should have lasted five minutes. It is United's right to protect an asset with resale value, which is true of Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Victor Lindelof and Hannibal Mejbri.
It should not be difficult to pull each player to one side, inform them their deal had been extended, they are a valuable squad member and all parties will reassess their future in the summer.
At the pre-match press conference for the FA Cup tie against Wigan, Ten Hag was asked if Sancho's inevitable return to Borussia Dortmund on loan suggested he had a future at United. Ten Hag dodged the question when everyone knows the answer.
Back on December 8, Ten Hag said of Sancho: "What will happen there, he knows what he has to do. If he wants to return and it is up to him. He knows what he has to do, it is up to him."
Ten Hag might have been puzzled to read back-page sidebars on the potential end of Sancho's exile. Diplomacy has replaced directness this season.
Where once Ten Hag was concise and sometimes curt during press conferences, he is now needlessly vague. He claimed "there is no news" on Sancho yesterday. Figures at United have confirmed discussions are progressing over a loan to Dortmund.
Sancho would have had to film a more contrite public apology than Tiger Woods to have been accepted back into the fold. Had he done so, the sincerity would have been immediately disputed for he accused Ten Hag of lying more than four months ago.
Time is a great healer but there has been no inclination on either side to call a truce. Sancho cannot be at United come the closure of the winter transfer window, for the manager's authority would erode.
Sanctioning Sancho's loan is the clearest backing Ten Hag has hitherto received from the INEOS Group. It is safe to assume Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Sir Dave Brailsford did not press the flesh with Sancho on their visit to Carrington this week, if Sancho was indeed on the premises.
With a football director on borrowed time and an interim chief executive, the sole decision-maker on any managerial change is the distant Joel Glazer, last photographed at Carrington in March 2013. Glazer is not going to take that decision when he has all but relinquished control of football operations and Ten Hag enthused about his first sit-down with Ratcliffe.
"We are on the same page," Ten Hag said. For his sake, hopefully it is not an illusion.
